Breach

While September 11 redefined 2001 forever, just a few months before it, the US had faced another disaster of great magnitude. One of its senior FBI agents, the head of its Soviet operations, was exposed as being a double agent 8212; undermining the bureau8217;s operations, exposing its men to certain death, and robbing it of millions of dollars over a period of 25 years, making it the biggest security breach in the history of America.

Covering the final two months when Robert Hanssen8217;s cover was decisively blown and he was arrested by the FBI, Billy Ray 8212; who also co-wrote the screenplay and directed Breach 8212; puts up a compelling story, amply helped by Chris Cooper8217;s master turn as the traitor spy.

Rather than a thriller, Breach works at a psychological level, pitting together Hanssen and his assistant Eric O8217; Neill, two men who couldn8217;t be more different, and exploring why each one is the way he is. It is O8217;Neill Phillippe, 8220;confident on the verge of being cocky8221;, who eventually helps bring down the cold-as-cucumber Hanssen.

Breach also examines quite efficiently the curious mix of extreme, almost zealous religiosity; sexual deviance that included recording sex with own wife and circulating the tape; immense talent and love for his job; and the conviction that the bureau didn8217;t appreciate him that may have deluded Hanssen into becoming what he became.

With his stooping, shuffling gait and piercing, yet guarded eyes, Cooper doesn8217;t let you hate or ignore Hanssen. As he stands there looking at the camera, he almost makes you feel Hanssen is asking for help. This is also suggested in his continued trust in O8217;Neill, whom he has just met and has reasons to be suspicious of.

While the lightweight Phillippe tries valiantly to stand his ground and Linney is no pushover, nobody stands a chance before Cooper8217;s burning performance.

Breach demonstrates why it was so easy to like Hanssen, while leaving the question of why he crossed over and helped the Soviets open-ended. Even as Hanssen spends a life sentence in jail, 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, that question hasn8217;t been answered in real life as well. Ray is intelligent enough to know that perhaps Hanssen himself doesn8217;t have all the answers.

It would have been quite easy for the director to appeal to the lowest common denominators, go into the murky world of espionage and treat this as yet another Hollywood-gets-the-traitor film. But the ways of the mind, Ray realises, are much, much more mysterious and, sometimes, murkier.